Claremont
The union will go to the New Hampshire Public Employees Labor Relations Board to “enforce the arbitrator’s award,” National Education Association attorney James Allmendinger said in an email Thursday. The union maintains the School Board’s decision to implement a new high school schedule this fall violated the collective bargaining agreement.
Under the new schedule, students take classes in individual subjects on alternate days for a full year instead of four subjects every day for one semester.
For the second time, arbitrator Gary Altman last month sided with the Sugar River Education Association, finding that the new schedule violates the collective bargaining agreement. He ordered the district to pay the 33 high school teachers $153,000 — about $4,600 per teacher — for the additional instructional time under the so-called A/B schedule.
At Wednesday night’s School Board meeting, Superintendent Middleton McGoodwin defended the board’s decision to reject Altman’s decision. The School Board maintains that state law establishes school scheduling as a board prerogative.
“The arbitrator is ignoring the law,” McGoodwin said. “(The ruling) violates the law and that is why the School Board said ‘no, we won’t let it happen.’ It is unenforceable.”
McGoodwin praised the faculty at Stevens and in the entire school district for its “dedication” but blamed the conflict over the schedule on a “small group” who he said looked at the collective bargaining agreement and made up its mind to thwart the School Board.
The union voted against the new schedule early last year, but the district has not been told what the vote was or how many teachers voted.
Union President Tammy Lynn Yates could not be reached for comment.
“I am not at war with the union. They are my colleagues, but I disagree with them,” McGoodwin said. “We need to stop a small group from controlling the entire school district.”
The union has argued that a “block scheduling side letter” — an agreement reached in May 2011 between the union and the School Board as an addendum to the contract — includes a provision that “teachers at Stevens High School shall teach three blocks per semester” of 85 minutes. That provision is binding, the union argues, meaning the former “4×4” schedule must stay in place.
“Sidebar letters are not the collective bargaining agreement,” McGoodwin said. “They are add-ons.”
The union has also pointed to a provision in the union contract that says arbitration decisions are binding on both parties. Altman first ruled in favor of the union last June, when it filed a grievance over the new schedule, which had been unanimously backed by a scheduling committee and approved by the School Board in early 2015. The board rejected Altman’s decision and voted in July to implement the new schedule. That led to an unfair labor practice complaint filed by the union with the New Hampshire Public Employees Relation Board and a request for a cease and desist order to force the district to start school under the old schedule.
The cease and desist demand was withdrawn after the school year began and both sides tried to mediate a solution but failed. The dispute went back to Altman late last year, resulting in his second ruling in favor of the union.
McGoodwin’s presentation included data collected over the last few years that he said clearly indicates the “4×4” schedule was not working, including failure rates exceeding 30 percent for 10th-grade English and geometry. A committee that developed and approved the new schedule — and included Stevens faculty — concluded that too much time elapsed between when students took some courses, such as math and English, under the old schedule and that students weren’t getting enough writing, reading and math.
McGoodwin and Stevens Principal Patricia Barry both acknowledge the schedule is a work in progress, and that it will need adjustments and a few years to determine its effectiveness.
“It is very premature to say what is working and what is not working,” Barry said.
A few students at the School Board meeting were critical of the schedule, saying they were unable to get the courses they wanted or had to review material in a class more often because they no longer have the same subjects every day.
Angelika Seaman, daughter of former School Board Chairman Richard Seaman, said taking eight classes at one time “is a lot to process” and she was not able to take as many electives because she couldn’t fit them into her schedule.
“Math you should have every day, otherwise you are reteaching material,” Seaman said, adding that she has found both “negatives and positives” with the schedule.
The board’s vice chairman, Chris Irish, said no matter what schedule is used, some won’t be pleased, and it would be “shortsighted” to abandon the new schedule without data justifying that decision.
“You are not going to satisfy every student; not going to happen,” Irish said.
School Board Chairman Brian Rapp, who was president of the local firefighters union until early last month, agreed with McGoodwin’s appraisal of the old schedule.
“We have plenty of data on the 4×4,” Rapp said. “It was failing our students miserably. Too many were left behind.”
Board member Michelle Pierce also thought the new schedule would improve student performance over time.
“I see great benefits down the road,” Pierce said. “We need two years to get there.”
Only board member Frank Sprague, Barry’s predecessor, was skeptical.
“It is amazing that the reasons we went to this new schedule are the same reasons we went to the (old) block schedule,” Sprague said of his experience when he was with the Newport School District.
If the dispute is not resolved by the labor relations board it will go to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, Allmendinger said.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
